Xavier Becerra is going to be the new governor of California. It’s a time to celebrate the first Latino to be elected to the position, but also a moment to take stock of what he can and should prioritize. Because when it comes to housing, the most important issue in California, Becerra’s statements during the campaign have made it a little difficult to tell what he’ll do.
Last week, the San Francisco Chronicle tried to pin him down, asking Becerra if he identified as a YIMBY or a NIMBY. He dodged, saying, “It’s interesting, YIMBY-NIMBY. There’s some people who don’t have a backyard at all, and who never get to engage in that YIMBY-NIMBY debate.”
It was a confusing answer. Does the new governor think the debate is literally about backyards? But as head-scratching as it was, we know what Becerra promised to do on housing, because he told us.
During the campaign, Becerra filled out YIMBY Action’s endorsement questionnaire, which we sent to all the major candidates. And he gave us back one of the most pro-housing sets of answers that we’ve ever seen. We were shocked, and delighted. That’s why YIMBY Action endorsed him, and that’s why we’re excited to get started working with him once he takes the oath of office.
Over the past 8 years, Gov. Gavin Newsom generally identified as a YIMBY who understood the scale of the housing crisis and wanted to build more homes. But while he championed various legislative changes, he often took his foot off the gas when it came to implementing pro-housing laws. Under his administration, the regulatory body in charge of holding cities accountable to regional housing goals has allowed cities to fall behind, with little consequence. While high-profile enforcement actions were led by the attorney general, the average city in California has quietly rebelled against new state laws.
Using the bully pulpit to help usher in new pro-housing laws is great, but the true test for Becerra will be whether or not he’s willing to fight to implement the laws and hold cities accountable.
Becerra promised that “on day one, I will issue an executive order declaring a statewide housing emergency and direct every state agency to treat housing production and affordability as paramount priorities.” That includes the Coastal Commission, the agency that regulates development along the coast and which has too often has provided excuses for wealthy cities to avoid allowing housing to be constructed. The governor-elect put it plainly: “the Commission cannot be used as a workaround for cities trying to evade their Housing Element obligations.”
He also promised to reduce the cost to build new housing, saying that he’d require the California Building Standards Commission to find ways to make the code cheaper to comply with “without compromising safety.” He said he would also require state agencies to be directed to cut housing fees. This is an exciting promise, because Sacramento has spent years scolding cities about affordability while piling costs onto new housing proposals.
Sounding much like newly-elected Congressman Scott Wiener, Becerra also pledged by-right approvals for homes near jobs and transit, plus a hard 90-day permit deadline “so projects are not strangled by process.”
Perhaps most importantly, Becerra promised to direct HCD to identify cities blocking zoning-compliant, affordable projects near transit and to start enforcement “not after years of back and forth, but from day one.”
Expanding on that point, he said he wants to put every city and county on a public, real-time permitting dashboard where we can watch who’s building and blocking new homes. We could not agree more that this must be a priority.
Finally, Becerra committed to creating the first-ever California Housing Master Plan, modeled on the state’s Climate Scoping Plan, in order to bring down what it costs to build at every level of the market. Right now, our state is planning decades ahead for water and for carbon, but we’ve never done the same for housing.
We live in the most expensive state in the nation — and we know why this happened. For decades, California has made it illegal to build the homes people need. We’ve choked housing supply and are living in the consequences every single day.
We stand ready and willing to be his partners in implementing their housing priorities during the first one hundred days. Every one of these ideas will be met with the usual chorus of NIMBY objections, but it’s our hope — and our demand — that Becerra look at the reality: Our housing shortage is grave, and NIMBYism’s political chokehold on our state is waning. The status quo had its chance. It’s time for bold action.
California’s housing shortage is an emergency, and Becerra has promised to treat it as the crisis it is. Let’s get to work.
Laura Foote is the executive director of YIMBY Action.